I've been 'surfing' the forum here (some may call it lurking) for over a year, and researching and riding ebikes for about 3 years. I finally took the plunge in the past month or so.
First of all, I'm a really picky buyer, and in general do not like to spend anymore than I absolutely have to, although having said that, I would have no issue plunking down $3000 to $4000. It was a fun process for me, and I took my time, tried friends ebikes, and tried some rentals along the way as well during my infrequent business travels. I learned a LOT about bike shops in general, (Since I hadnt been in one for almost 20 years) and since I hadn't been in the market for bikes since the late 90's, (I own a Trek MultiTrak 720) which gave me years of great use.
Why did I wait 3 years ? Well for one, this forum itself gave me pause on a lot of brands, but then I decided after reading tons of posts, people here can have a lot of biases in general, and trying to separate the 'chaff from the wheat', is not an easy process when you have no idea what the people commenting here are really like in terms of how or where they ride, how heavy they are, or their build type, their physical stamina, or even whether they are just fascinated with the technology itself, or halfway frequent riders. I also came to the conclusion, that many people posting here either just have a ton of time on their hands and like to just post about stuff and probably retired with nothing better to do (and Facebook for whatever reason isn't satisfying enough for them, and so they found people with common interests here, and just have to weigh in on nearly everything), or they came on to post about some issue they were having. So this forum while interesting, really only gave me some hints of brands to stay away from, and not waste my time on, and which brands were likely most problematic.
My general conclusions:
- Mid drives simply were not compelling enough to justify spending the extra $1000 to $2000 on, and their reliability when you look at everything objectively was really sub par for that amount of money, especially for ebikes costing $3000 to $5000. If I am spending that much, the reliability of that mid drive had better be darn near bullet proof, and be so for many years. Like my Trek has been. Right now, its just not anywhere close, and they just have not been on the market long enough, for me anyway, to prove that they wont cost me and arm and a leg down the road. The often cited 'natural feel' really didn't generate any compelling feeling nor did it affect how I felt about the performance of the bike overall. It was there, and generally they felt slower than most hub drives, and even in some cases kind of 'draggish' when I pedaled. This included models I tried from Trek, Electra, Giant, Haibike, Yamaha, Bulls, Raleigh, BH, and Specialized, and included motors from Bosch, Yamaha, Brose, Shimano, and TranzX.
- I intentionally excluded most ebikes that had Hub drives where the ebikes were priced above $2800. (except for a few as I did try Stromer, Pedego, and a few other brands to see what I might be missing).
- Dealer versus on line. My observation is that while it depends a LOT on the dealers you have near you, and their level of education (which in my experience of visiting over the past 3 years was nothing short of abysmal and disappointing) you generally will find the better made ebikes at local dealers, and better quality at dealers than via the on line only brands. If you are lucky enough to have a dealer near you, who actually knows something about ebikes, and even luckier to find one that deals exclusively in ebikes, then its just a no-brainer to not go the on-line route. I dont say this lightly and not trying to generalize or castigate on line brands, but its absolutely critical that you see and RIDE the ebike you are buying FIRST HAND, and ride as many as possible for fit, comfort, and all the nuances or biases you may have as a rider. There simply is no 'one size fits all' and I'm not talking just about frame sizes, but brand components, geometries, what the industry refers to as stack and reach, and a lot more.
- Front suspension shocks - I decided early on, I simply did not need front suspension shocks, and that nearly every ebike with shocks on them below the price point of $2500, simply were the lowest cost stuff you could put on a bike. Halfway decent shocks cost several hundred dollars. Rather I looked for the right geometry, and swept back handle bars, and right angle of fork positioning that provided an inherent ride dampening quality. Also, the right tires help a lot, and if you can accept that 2" tires roll just as well as anything 1.25", then you will have plenty of dampening from good size tires for majority of situations. The Trek I have ridden for 20 yrs, has forks that curve forward, and they are chromoly steel, so the curve coupled with that material provided great ride dampening, despite having tires that were narrow at 35C. Also its handlebars were slightly swept back, keeping more of my weight centered at the natural ride center of the bike between front and rear wheels. I looked for these great design characteristics in an ebike, as back in the 90's Trek seemed to know what they were doing with these certain models of 'hybrid' bikes (at least thats what they called them back then). I rode that bike on trails of all kinds, and gravel, etc. (too funny what they call 'gravel' bikes these days - much marketing hype and a joke if you ask me, and mostly a reason for industry to charge more money). Since my Trek also had a built in seat post suspension, and it was an ok quality but certainly not the best, it helped a tremendous amount, and I decided to put my money into a suspension seat post (instead of the ebike OEM's pocket for their cheap suspension fork). Again, much better value than front shocks, and certainly more effective for the entire bike at a point that holds 90% or more of your weight. (your butt and spine). And then also a really nice seat, if the ebike did not come with one. (and most dont - thankfully because I dont want the ebike mfg putting any more pennies into the seat, since i WANT TO CHOOSE it)
So what did I end up with ???? Drum roll.....
Sorry, Well not before I tell you what hub drive brands/models that you can get at dealers, that I tried that were actually decent and made it somewhat confusing to choose, but got through it since I was in no rush.
- IGO Ero, and Elite
- IZip Zuma (2017), E3
- Ohm City 2018
- Elby City
- Blix Sol, Blix Aveny and Stockholm (2016)
- Gazelle Avenue (2017)
- Genze 200 Series
- BESV CF1
- Aventon Pace 500
- Raleigh Superb IE (2017)
- Smart Motion Pacer and Catalyst
- Easy Motion - Jet and City
- Magnum Metro, Metro Plus, Peak, and Ui6 (2018 models)
- Surface 604 Rook, Colt
My last criteria was - would I pay more for the ebike I chose, if it happened to be higher priced than what I was paying ? Sounds odd, but its a gut way to know whether Im choosing the right ebike, and not just buying on price alone. a Jedi-mind trick if you will. So would have I paid another $100 or $200 more for the model I bought ? You betcha !!!
And the model is the Pace 500.
The pace 500 was superior in so many ways, and ironically its fairly new to the market, and so little has been talked about it here or anywhere, but I will tell you that I was really at wits end trying to find the ebike I wanted (until this Pace came along), and feeling like it would hold up well, the design was providing what I wanted in the way of ride quality, overall performance, and comfort. So many of the above brands were just missing the mark, and I just kept asking myself is this ebike model (whatever I was riding) worth the money I was spending ??? - and nearly always I came back to a plain NO.
Some came close, but more were just lacking the right combination of spec's, geometry design, ride feel, stability, nimbleness, electronics, wiring, total bike weight, and even proper rate of acceleration and speed. And no I was not looking specifically to find something capable of 28 mph - but I really did want something that would not stop assisting me when I wanted to go faster than 20 mph. That was just a flat out nuisance on so many ebikes. I dont EVER want to feel like I am hitting any sort of 'wall' in my ride, if I am in a situation where I can capably pedal at 21, 22, or 24 mph. I want that ability to GO, when Im getting near a hill to get momentum, and I want it when I am riding around certain types of traffic. And I dont want the bike to bog down, nor do I want to rely on some sort of 'natural feel' or have to press harder in case my legs are spent at some point in the ride. I want to pedal, and just GO, without any hesitation. No mid drive has that, and many hub drives dont, despite high watt ratings. Am I a speed demon ? No. My average pace is often below 15 mph.
I added the Kinekt seat post ( a dream to ride on!) and put on my own rechargeable lights. (by the way, lights supplied with all ebikes integrated into the battery by the OEM, just really suck. They are too dim, and often at the wrong height and location. I chose one with 800 lumens. I not only want to see, but want to be seen, day or night. With a light that bright, you can actually be seen better by cars behind you at night, because they see you are flooding the pavement ahead of you, and sometimes might consider you are not just a bike rider, but maybe another type of vehicle. Not a big fan of fenders either. The one thing I might upgrade in the future is the type of hydraulic brakes that are on the Pace 500. They are good, especially at that price point, but I like a certain feel, and know what brakes will give me that. Oh, and I changed the seat to a Serfas brand gel seat.
Ive had the ebike a month now, and put over 700 miles on it, and its just been an absolute pleasure. It's as 'freeing' as my Trek was when I bought that bike, and if Trek made bikes the way they used to, and actually made one with a hub drive, and priced it properly, I might have considered one from them. (even though not impressed with their dealers near me on the few visits I made in the past couple of years)
P.S. I think I got 'lucky' on my timing, as a LOT seems to have evolved/improved over the past 3 years, and with firms like Aventon producing really nice ebikes at affordable prices and with components needed and wanted by most regular bikers, that did not exist or weren't producing the ebikes I liked 3 years ago, there isn't a need to wait. Do you need to buy the Aventon Pace 500 ? No. But I would certainly try one if possible, and use it as a benchmark so to speak, and ask yourself if another ebike you are considering is really worth the difference in price.
First of all, I'm a really picky buyer, and in general do not like to spend anymore than I absolutely have to, although having said that, I would have no issue plunking down $3000 to $4000. It was a fun process for me, and I took my time, tried friends ebikes, and tried some rentals along the way as well during my infrequent business travels. I learned a LOT about bike shops in general, (Since I hadnt been in one for almost 20 years) and since I hadn't been in the market for bikes since the late 90's, (I own a Trek MultiTrak 720) which gave me years of great use.
Why did I wait 3 years ? Well for one, this forum itself gave me pause on a lot of brands, but then I decided after reading tons of posts, people here can have a lot of biases in general, and trying to separate the 'chaff from the wheat', is not an easy process when you have no idea what the people commenting here are really like in terms of how or where they ride, how heavy they are, or their build type, their physical stamina, or even whether they are just fascinated with the technology itself, or halfway frequent riders. I also came to the conclusion, that many people posting here either just have a ton of time on their hands and like to just post about stuff and probably retired with nothing better to do (and Facebook for whatever reason isn't satisfying enough for them, and so they found people with common interests here, and just have to weigh in on nearly everything), or they came on to post about some issue they were having. So this forum while interesting, really only gave me some hints of brands to stay away from, and not waste my time on, and which brands were likely most problematic.
My general conclusions:
- Mid drives simply were not compelling enough to justify spending the extra $1000 to $2000 on, and their reliability when you look at everything objectively was really sub par for that amount of money, especially for ebikes costing $3000 to $5000. If I am spending that much, the reliability of that mid drive had better be darn near bullet proof, and be so for many years. Like my Trek has been. Right now, its just not anywhere close, and they just have not been on the market long enough, for me anyway, to prove that they wont cost me and arm and a leg down the road. The often cited 'natural feel' really didn't generate any compelling feeling nor did it affect how I felt about the performance of the bike overall. It was there, and generally they felt slower than most hub drives, and even in some cases kind of 'draggish' when I pedaled. This included models I tried from Trek, Electra, Giant, Haibike, Yamaha, Bulls, Raleigh, BH, and Specialized, and included motors from Bosch, Yamaha, Brose, Shimano, and TranzX.
- I intentionally excluded most ebikes that had Hub drives where the ebikes were priced above $2800. (except for a few as I did try Stromer, Pedego, and a few other brands to see what I might be missing).
- Dealer versus on line. My observation is that while it depends a LOT on the dealers you have near you, and their level of education (which in my experience of visiting over the past 3 years was nothing short of abysmal and disappointing) you generally will find the better made ebikes at local dealers, and better quality at dealers than via the on line only brands. If you are lucky enough to have a dealer near you, who actually knows something about ebikes, and even luckier to find one that deals exclusively in ebikes, then its just a no-brainer to not go the on-line route. I dont say this lightly and not trying to generalize or castigate on line brands, but its absolutely critical that you see and RIDE the ebike you are buying FIRST HAND, and ride as many as possible for fit, comfort, and all the nuances or biases you may have as a rider. There simply is no 'one size fits all' and I'm not talking just about frame sizes, but brand components, geometries, what the industry refers to as stack and reach, and a lot more.
- Front suspension shocks - I decided early on, I simply did not need front suspension shocks, and that nearly every ebike with shocks on them below the price point of $2500, simply were the lowest cost stuff you could put on a bike. Halfway decent shocks cost several hundred dollars. Rather I looked for the right geometry, and swept back handle bars, and right angle of fork positioning that provided an inherent ride dampening quality. Also, the right tires help a lot, and if you can accept that 2" tires roll just as well as anything 1.25", then you will have plenty of dampening from good size tires for majority of situations. The Trek I have ridden for 20 yrs, has forks that curve forward, and they are chromoly steel, so the curve coupled with that material provided great ride dampening, despite having tires that were narrow at 35C. Also its handlebars were slightly swept back, keeping more of my weight centered at the natural ride center of the bike between front and rear wheels. I looked for these great design characteristics in an ebike, as back in the 90's Trek seemed to know what they were doing with these certain models of 'hybrid' bikes (at least thats what they called them back then). I rode that bike on trails of all kinds, and gravel, etc. (too funny what they call 'gravel' bikes these days - much marketing hype and a joke if you ask me, and mostly a reason for industry to charge more money). Since my Trek also had a built in seat post suspension, and it was an ok quality but certainly not the best, it helped a tremendous amount, and I decided to put my money into a suspension seat post (instead of the ebike OEM's pocket for their cheap suspension fork). Again, much better value than front shocks, and certainly more effective for the entire bike at a point that holds 90% or more of your weight. (your butt and spine). And then also a really nice seat, if the ebike did not come with one. (and most dont - thankfully because I dont want the ebike mfg putting any more pennies into the seat, since i WANT TO CHOOSE it)
So what did I end up with ???? Drum roll.....
Sorry, Well not before I tell you what hub drive brands/models that you can get at dealers, that I tried that were actually decent and made it somewhat confusing to choose, but got through it since I was in no rush.
- IGO Ero, and Elite
- IZip Zuma (2017), E3
- Ohm City 2018
- Elby City
- Blix Sol, Blix Aveny and Stockholm (2016)
- Gazelle Avenue (2017)
- Genze 200 Series
- BESV CF1
- Aventon Pace 500
- Raleigh Superb IE (2017)
- Smart Motion Pacer and Catalyst
- Easy Motion - Jet and City
- Magnum Metro, Metro Plus, Peak, and Ui6 (2018 models)
- Surface 604 Rook, Colt
My last criteria was - would I pay more for the ebike I chose, if it happened to be higher priced than what I was paying ? Sounds odd, but its a gut way to know whether Im choosing the right ebike, and not just buying on price alone. a Jedi-mind trick if you will. So would have I paid another $100 or $200 more for the model I bought ? You betcha !!!
And the model is the Pace 500.
The pace 500 was superior in so many ways, and ironically its fairly new to the market, and so little has been talked about it here or anywhere, but I will tell you that I was really at wits end trying to find the ebike I wanted (until this Pace came along), and feeling like it would hold up well, the design was providing what I wanted in the way of ride quality, overall performance, and comfort. So many of the above brands were just missing the mark, and I just kept asking myself is this ebike model (whatever I was riding) worth the money I was spending ??? - and nearly always I came back to a plain NO.
Some came close, but more were just lacking the right combination of spec's, geometry design, ride feel, stability, nimbleness, electronics, wiring, total bike weight, and even proper rate of acceleration and speed. And no I was not looking specifically to find something capable of 28 mph - but I really did want something that would not stop assisting me when I wanted to go faster than 20 mph. That was just a flat out nuisance on so many ebikes. I dont EVER want to feel like I am hitting any sort of 'wall' in my ride, if I am in a situation where I can capably pedal at 21, 22, or 24 mph. I want that ability to GO, when Im getting near a hill to get momentum, and I want it when I am riding around certain types of traffic. And I dont want the bike to bog down, nor do I want to rely on some sort of 'natural feel' or have to press harder in case my legs are spent at some point in the ride. I want to pedal, and just GO, without any hesitation. No mid drive has that, and many hub drives dont, despite high watt ratings. Am I a speed demon ? No. My average pace is often below 15 mph.
I added the Kinekt seat post ( a dream to ride on!) and put on my own rechargeable lights. (by the way, lights supplied with all ebikes integrated into the battery by the OEM, just really suck. They are too dim, and often at the wrong height and location. I chose one with 800 lumens. I not only want to see, but want to be seen, day or night. With a light that bright, you can actually be seen better by cars behind you at night, because they see you are flooding the pavement ahead of you, and sometimes might consider you are not just a bike rider, but maybe another type of vehicle. Not a big fan of fenders either. The one thing I might upgrade in the future is the type of hydraulic brakes that are on the Pace 500. They are good, especially at that price point, but I like a certain feel, and know what brakes will give me that. Oh, and I changed the seat to a Serfas brand gel seat.
Ive had the ebike a month now, and put over 700 miles on it, and its just been an absolute pleasure. It's as 'freeing' as my Trek was when I bought that bike, and if Trek made bikes the way they used to, and actually made one with a hub drive, and priced it properly, I might have considered one from them. (even though not impressed with their dealers near me on the few visits I made in the past couple of years)
P.S. I think I got 'lucky' on my timing, as a LOT seems to have evolved/improved over the past 3 years, and with firms like Aventon producing really nice ebikes at affordable prices and with components needed and wanted by most regular bikers, that did not exist or weren't producing the ebikes I liked 3 years ago, there isn't a need to wait. Do you need to buy the Aventon Pace 500 ? No. But I would certainly try one if possible, and use it as a benchmark so to speak, and ask yourself if another ebike you are considering is really worth the difference in price.
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